This will actually be one of the few high end condo projects that could make it past the stage of just a pretty billboard advertisement. Convenience is key here, and too many of the proposed projects were not.

Convenience is putting a high price on a lot of the projects in Tuscaloosa. There are soooo many condo projects that are either going up, being planned, or have been completed less than a half mile from even the most outer fringes of campus. And lemme tell yah, they are EXPENSIVE.

Excellent find ! That is one of the best-looking proposed projects I've ever seen in Tuscaloosa. Any idea of the timetable ?

I am not really sure. Here is a post from an Alabama football board that talks about it:

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I'll shine some light here. The Phi House is fine, so no worries.

I made a post months back hinting at what was to come, but didn't follow up because things grew stagnant for a while and our marketing plan was delayed.

This project is going to be AWESOME. I work for an agency who was hired to do the early concepting and marketing for it's advertising campaign, so we met with Dr. Witt, the City Council, and EVERYONE is on board. We had some kick-ass football related marketing that I just couldn't WAIT to show you guys, but not really sure if we've retained the advertising business past the early stages, because things quieted down so much in the off-season.

The only things going away are Stadium apartments, the Alabama Book Store (no new news here), and the Haleil (sp?) Foundation. Basically it runs from Univ. to the block Rama Jama's, which will remained untouched.

Gallette's is untouched. Dr. Witt stated that he understands Gallette's is a gameday tradition and it will forever remain untouched. Which is good, because I would have probably pulled an Ike Turner on him. (g)

The bottom-level retail is meant to attract sellers like Barnes and Noble and nice chain restaurants. The housing is meant to be not elite but very nice and have a hotel feel to it. There will also be 12th-floor penthouse-quality rooms available for purchase, which should be very, very nice.

It will be big for Tuscaloosa and big for UA.

This thing has the potential to be the finest football-related real estate project ever built. It will be 12 stories (the city hight limitations were lifted), and will be the first of it's kind, with imitations possibly to follow in places like South Bend and all over the country. It is RIGHT NEXT to BDS, so the location is absolutely unbeatable. And it's part of Dr. Witt's plan to move our campus forward and make it more attractive to prospective students.

I don't want to get into any more specifics, but the name we generated is perfect for the project and the advertising kick-off campaign we did was F'in great. You guys would've loved it. But Real Estate clients are real iffy in this business, so after Phase 1 of the campaign, it seems the developers (Spectrum Capital, an affiliate of Yates) have moved on because we haven't heard from them since the end of the '07 season. So don't know if they'll use what we came up with or not.

Just read that Dillards is closing their McFarland Mall location in Tuscaloosa. This is pretty bad for McFarland Mall, it was in bad shape before, I wonder if they'll be able to find an anchor that would be willing to take a chance on that building that's in such disrepair.

Just read that Dillards is closing their McFarland Mall location in Tuscaloosa. This is pretty bad for McFarland Mall, it was in bad shape before, I wonder if they'll be able to find an anchor that would be willing to take a chance on that building that's in such disrepair.

Yeah, that old mall has gotten in pitiful shape.
The rumor is Burlington Coat Factory plans to move into the bottom floor, but what that mall really needs is an implosion...

Yeah, that old mall has gotten in pitiful shape.
The rumor is Burlington Coat Factory plans to move into the bottom floor, but what that mall really needs is an implosion...

It will never survive and it's situation is awfully similar to Springdale in Mobile. I could be wrong but I think it was Gayfer's/Dillards that left that one too.

Not only is University Mall ugly but the area it too saturated to make a comeback. Basically every type of business is now covered across the street. I guess they could try to make it more of a lower end shoe and clothing place but the amount of people it would bring in won't be enough. Tear that baby down and build something nice...the rest of the area is really nice now -- from target to Barnes and Nobles.

I was in T-town for the Bama / LSU game, and while the Skyland Blvd half of McFarland still looks like utter crap, and I hate that it's our main entry, Downtown is looking pretty darn amazing.

I had friends from out of town with me. One was a LSU fan who had never been to Tuscaloosa. Needless to say, the campus blew him away, but he was thoroughly impressed with all that Downtown T-town had to offer as well (amphitheater, River Walk, top notch hotels, great bars and restaurants, etc).

It has really shaped up quite nicely, and I'm excited to see what's to come moving forward.

FYI. There are plans to widen the McFarland bridge to six lanes, with a bike/walking bridge that will connect to the River Walk. If I remember correctly, it's about a year out from beginning construction. It will add much needed lanes for traffic and take the River Walk across the river so it can continue East, along the levy, at a later date.

What I would like to see, in the near future, is a new railroad bridge across the Black Warrior River, about 300 yards to the west of the current bridge. It would straighten the north/south railroad approaching the river from the north and the south and provide a new, up-to-date, safe railroad bridge. Then, modify and use the old bridge as a pedestrian/bike bridge that would connect the Tuscaloosa River Walk to the Northport River Walk. Also, the Tuscaloosa River Walk could be extended west to the Oliver Dam. Just thinking.